A North Wales council's website is down - with a pro-Russia hacking group claiming responsibility. The website of Conwy County Borough Council has been down for most users this morning.
People trying to access the site have received a message saying there had been a "Gateway Timeout".
A spokesperson said: "Our website is currently unavailable. We're working to restore the service and apologise for any inconvenience."
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A pro-Russian group, NoName05716, has posted on the Telegram site that it had launched a Distributed Denial of Service [DDoS] attack on the council's site. A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt a target server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic.
Attackers use multiple compromised devices—often organised into a network called a botnet—to exhaust the target's resources and force it offline.
The same group has previously targeted local authorities in Greater Manchester as well as Liverpool City Council.
A report for Liverpool council said: "Noname057(16) is a state-linked Russian hacktivist group that attacks western targets, mostly government, military, transport and health.
"We have experienced many attacks from this group and their allies using their Distributed Botnet over the last two years.
"Denial of Service attacks for monetary or political reasons is a widespread risk for any company with a web presence or that relies on internet-based systems."
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